This week on Help and Hope our host Andrew Ray asks Dr. David Powlison and Dr. Mike Emlet the question: "is it wrong to marry a friend (without romantic feelings for them)?"
“If we’re in love, what’s wrong with having sex before marriage? And even if we’re not—isn’t everyone else doing it? Why should we be the only ones who wait?”
Have you ever thought or said things like this? If your answer is yes, you have a lot of company—most people in our world agree with you that, at least in some circumstances, premarital sex is okay. But do you know what God says about this issue?
You know you're in love--you always want to be together, and you think about each other all the time--but does that mean you're ready to get married? How do you decide if your relationship is strong enough for marriage?
Hooking up, "sexting", friendships with "benefits": it's all happening on the college campus. The meaning of both friendship and sex has been lost on the college campus where physical proximity and lack of boundaries affect sexual relationships. Technology makes anytime gratification possible, and virginity pledges and purity rings trade on the fear of unwanted pregnancy and moralism. This elective will explore how a biblical view of sexuality can offer hope to college students who face confusing relationships and choices on campus.
Jesus met a woman beside Jacob's well, asked her for water, amazed her by knowing the details of her domestic arrangements...and won her faith. "Living together" comes wearing a variety of labels: cohabitation, fornication, living in sin, trial marriage, domestic partnership, immorality, and common law marriage. This elective will consider how to minister, love, and talk with couples living together outside of marriage.
Post 1: Superiority Complex? Is Marriage “better” than singleness?
Last week, I began teaching the marriage counseling course. I lectured on Genesis 2 like you would naturally expect a biblical course on marriage to begin. It is clear from the passage that the creation of man and woman and the one-flesh relationship of marriage is the highpoint, the beautiful crescendo of the creation narrative. Yet every time I give this lecture, I am concerned that the singles in my class may feel a bit marginalized, not just in the course, but in life itself, so I always try to take some time to talk about singleness. Last week I explained to the class that while marriage is held up as the foundation of all other relationships, that all other important forms of human relationship are there too—in seed form. We don’t just have the first marriage, but the beginning of friendship, culture, and the church itself. So while marriage is a necessary ground for image bearing relationships, God calls us into and values every form of image bearing love. Last week I think I said something like “though marriage is foundational to all other relationships, it is not ‘better than’ all other forms of relationship”. Naturally, a few students approached me afterwards to ask me to clarify and kindly disagree.
Who should you date? You might be drawn to someone who is fun, good-looking, and interested in the same things you are, but even more important than what’s on the surface is what someone is like inside. But how can you find that out? What should you look for?
